I am so honored to announce that I will be one of the featured artists at this event!

Saturday, March 11, 2017 at Arts Benicia Gallery, 991 Tyler St., #114 in Benicia. The symposium is co-hosted by the Benicia-Vallejo American Association of University Women (AAUW) and Art Benicia. The event will feature a pop-up art exhibit of visual, word and performing art sharing the expression across four generations of women. Panelists will discuss who and what influenced them as artists and will share who or what their art most influences. A viewing reception begins at 1 p.m. with music provided by Jazz Guerilla. The panel begins at 2 p.m. Please join us. For more information contact Arts Benicia info@artsbenicia.org.

FoKiaNou24/7 presents “This Is Not Normal”, an exhibition of 8 San Francisco artists

Blanka Amezkua, Sarah Barsness, Brad Brown, Clancy Cavnar, Mary Cox, Kornelios Grammenos, Marino Pascal, and Anne Veraldi. San Francisco’s diversity and eccentricity have long fed alternative and counter-cultural movements and a sense of celebratory freedom. Of any city in the U.S., San Francisco comes closest to the spirit of resistance and mind-set of Athens, notwithstanding relative wealth differentials. This exhibition presents to Athenians a sample of work by artists who have embraced alternative ways of looking, representing and thinking.Four of the following artists are currently based in San Francisco, while four have previous ties that have informed their work.

"Sometimes an art project sneaks up on you. Barsness had taken up bird watching as a hobby, and eventually couldn't resist photographing what she was seeing. Rather than classic magazine cover shots or "wildlife photography" these are more like portraits of individuals. They have a strange, voyeuristic quality, which makes sense when you consider that bird watching is basically spying on birds that are minding their own business.

The resulting photographs are of birds in motion, in their own worlds, sometimes partially occluded, the rest of the scene just a blur. This selective focus and movement mimics the experience of watching birds, which never really hold still for you to identify them properly. Some you recognize from their shapes and motions in the corner of your eye. Sometimes you fixate on a detail in your memory and the rest escapes. " Torreya Cummings